The gross holiday let gap for a Bromley 3-bed house comes in at -66% versus buy-to-let, because the 90-night planning cap caps revenue before costs are even applied. Once Airbnb fees, insurance loadings and utilities are deducted, the gap widens further. This article walks through the after-cost numbers for both a 3-bed house and a 2-bed apartment, because the cost structures diverge sharply once service charges enter the picture.
The 3-Bed House: Holiday Letting Runs at a Loss After Costs
Bromley's 90-night cap is the dominant factor. Even at the city's average occupancy of 49% across the 90 permitted nights, gross revenue lands at £9,436, which is below the buy-to-let gross of £27,878. Once costs are deducted, the holiday let runs negative.
| holiday let | buy-to-let | |
|---|---|---|
| Property price | £567,623 | £567,623 |
| Gross revenue | £9,436 | £27,878 |
| Airbnb fees (15.5%) | £1,463 | — |
| Letting agent | — | £2,874 |
| Insurance | £2,109 | £856 |
| Maintenance | £6,364 | £4,371 |
| Utilities | £2,094 | £249 |
| Business rates (after SBRR) | £0 | — |
| Holiday let tax | $0 | — |
| Total costs | £14,868 | £11,188 |
| Net income | £-5,432 | £16,690 |
| Net yield | -1.0% | 2.9% |
Holiday let figures apply only where legally permitted. Bromley sits within Greater London, where the Deregulation Act 2015 caps short-term letting at 90 nights per year unless full planning permission for change of use has been granted. Airbnb automatically blocks bookings beyond the 90-night ceiling for London addresses.
The 90-Night Cap and Premium Insurance Drive the Holiday Let Deficit
Three line items account for almost the entire gap between gross and net on the holiday let side. The Airbnb host fee strips 15.5% off gross revenue, equivalent to £1,463 a year. Other platforms charge differently, with Vrbo around 8% and Booking.com closer to 15%, but Airbnb dominates short-stay supply in outer London. Specialist holiday let insurance comes in at £2,109, compared to £856 for a standard landlord policy: roughly two and a half times higher because cover must include public liability for paying guests, full contents replacement and loss of income.
The bigger structural problem is the 90-night cap. Buy-to-let revenue stretches across 12 months at the local market rent of £2,395. Holiday let revenue is squeezed into 90 permitted nights at £215, then further haircut by typical occupancy. The result is gross revenue that comes in below the buy-to-let baseline before costs are even applied. Maintenance also runs higher on the holiday let side at £6,364 versus £4,371 for buy-to-let, because the figure includes furnishing replacement and faster wear from rotating guests.
The 2-Bed Apartment: Service Charges Add a Fixed Drag
Apartments in Bromley enter at £336,619, well below the £567,623 entry for a 3-bed house. They also collect lower rents and lower nightly rates. The decisive cost line is the service charge of £2,517 per year, which applies whether the flat is let short-term or long-term and which houses simply do not pay.
| holiday let | buy-to-let | |
|---|---|---|
| Property price | £336,619 | £336,619 |
| Gross revenue | £6,061 | £18,799 |
| Airbnb fees (15.5%) | £939 | — |
| Letting agent | — | £1,880 |
| Insurance | £1,191 | £499 |
| Maintenance | £3,921 | £2,592 |
| Utilities | £1,458 | £143 |
| Business rates (after SBRR) | £0 | — |
| Holiday let tax | $0 | — |
| Service charge | £2,517 | £2,517 |
| Total costs | £11,709 | £9,314 |
| Net income | £-5,648 | £9,485 |
| Net yield | -1.7% | 2.8% |
Most leasehold flats in Greater London prohibit short-term letting in the lease itself. Even where the 90-night planning rule is satisfied, the freeholder's consent is usually required and is often refused. Verify your lease terms before assuming the holiday let column is achievable.
Houses Hold a Net-Yield Edge Over Apartments After Service Charges
The apartment route looks tempting on entry price: an investor needs roughly £336,619 for the flat versus £567,623 for the house, a saving of close to 40%. But yield looks different. The 3-bed house produces a buy-to-let net yield of 2.9%, while the 2-bed apartment lands at 2.8%. The service charge of £2,517 a year is the principal reason: it is a fixed cost on a smaller revenue base, so it consumes a larger share of gross.
On the holiday let side, both property types struggle under the 90-night cap. The house comes in at -1.0% and the apartment at -1.7%. Neither beats buy-to-let in Bromley once the cap, the service charge and the higher insurance loadings are properly costed. The implication is that for most Bromley investors, the buy-to-let route on a 3-bed house is the cleaner yield strategy, with capital growth as the speculative upside.
Holiday Let Only Breaks Even at 144% Occupancy
The break-even calculation makes the cap problem explicit. Holiday let gross only matches buy-to-let gross at 144% occupancy across the 90 permitted nights. The market median sits at 49%. Because 144% exceeds 100%, no real-world occupancy rate inside the legal cap can close the gap. The only way holiday letting wins on gross is to secure full planning consent for change of use, which lifts the 90-night ceiling but is rarely granted in residential Bromley.
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Hiring a Holiday Let Manager Pushes the House Net Yield Further Negative
The cost tables above assume self-management on the holiday let side, which matches the dashboard's default and the realistic option for owners who live within an hour of the property. Outsourcing changes the maths sharply. A specialist Bromley holiday let manager typically charges around 18% of gross revenue, which adds roughly £1,698 a year on the 3-bed house. Because that fee is paid out of an already-thin revenue line, it drops the net yield to -1.3%.
The buy-to-let column already includes a letting agent line at around 10% of rent, because full-management is the realistic default for outer-London landlords. Removing the agent (going self-managed for the long-let) would lift the buy-to-let net yield, but most investors prefer the convenience for tenancies that run 12 months at a time.
The FHL Repeal Erased the Last Tax Reason to Choose Holiday Letting
The Furnished Holiday Lettings regime was abolished from April 2025, removing the capital allowances, full mortgage interest deduction and pension-contribution relief that historically tilted some of these calculations toward holiday letting. Holiday lets and buy-to-lets are now taxed equivalently, with mortgage interest restricted to the basic-rate tax credit for both. Stamp duty on a Bromley investment purchase carries the standard 5-percentage-point surcharge for additional dwellings, on top of the regular bands; check the exact figure with your solicitor at the point of purchase.
The practical takeaway is that the financial comparison between holiday letting and buy-to-let now rests entirely on operating economics, not tax structure. In Bromley, those operating economics favour buy-to-let.
These figures are city-wide medians across 57 Bromley postcode districts; individual suburbs diverge significantly. Top-yielding Bromley (TN16) runs at 5.6% buy-to-let gross, while prime postcodes like West Wickham (BR4) sit lower at 5.3%. The dashboard shows suburb-level data for every bedroom count and property type. Explore rental data in the dashboard, or read the supporting data sources and market score methodology.
Data reflects market conditions as of May 2026.
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This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.
Methodology and Assumptions
Defaults used in the figures above. All inputs are adjustable in the dashboard.
How available nights are determined
Available nights default to 330 per year, reflecting an active operator with minimal blocked time. Where local regulations cap whole-home short-term lets (for example London at 90 nights, New South Wales at 180), the cap is applied. In markets where short-term rental requires owner-occupancy or is otherwise prohibited for investment properties, available nights drop to zero.
How occupancy is measured
The percentage of available nights that get booked, drawn from market data. A property listed for 200 nights with 100 bookings shows 50% occupancy. Adjustable in the dashboard.
Long-term rental management default
Includes a 9% letting agent fee, the standard arrangement for UK buy-to-let investors who use a managing agent. Self-managed landlords can adjust this to zero in the dashboard.
Short-term rental management default
Set to self-managed (zero management fee) by default, the most common arrangement for individual investors. Hiring a professional manager typically costs 20-25% of gross revenue and reduces net yield proportionally. Toggle in the dashboard.
How property tax is calculated
Council tax in the UK is typically paid by the tenant for long-term rentals, so it is excluded from buy-to-let costs. Holiday lets are usually assessed as business rates and may qualify for Small Business Rate Relief, often reducing this to zero.
Local regulations
Limited to 90 nights per year. London 90-day rule: properties without planning permission are limited to 90 nights/year of short-term letting. Applies to all London boroughs. Exceeding 90 days requires planning permission from the local council. Platforms like Airbnb automatically block bookings beyond 90 days for London addresses.
Sampling and data sources
Short-term rental yield figures reflect properties currently listed on short-term rental platforms. In high-tourism markets, listings tend to concentrate in central postcodes, which can pull city-median yields above what residential areas of the same city would achieve. Yields for any specific suburb may differ significantly from the city-wide median.
For metric definitions and broader methodology, see the About page.